Cutting With Claws
by freya kurenai
Summary: From the Devil's 30-30 prompt table. // "Oz may be my Master... but I care for you as well." // Vincent x Gil. Nightraycest. YAOI.


**Author's Notes: ***cheers* I finally got around to making a Nightray-cest fic~! Less action than I wanted, but I guess that'll have to be rectified elsewhere. ;D *Insert obligatory _'new fandom - first REAL fic - please not to be hating me'_ -babble here*

**Warnings: **Break's real name, mentions of Jack Vessalius, hints of Ozbert-dom (_Not to offend the shippers-- I also like Ozbert... but I love Nightray-cest even more_), the beginnings of the 'Tea Party of Doom', creative licensing in some cases, the mini-AU bazooka... and of course, Vincent, the warning all on his own. And Eliot, who appears only twice but still needs to be mentioned because I am a Nightray-junkie of soon-to-be epic proportions.

That being said, it's time for the fic to take the main stage!

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**+X+X+**

**.**

**Cutting With Claws**

**.**

**+X+X+**

**Love**

It's a pair of mismatched eyes, a stolen kiss in deepest darkness of the night, a flash of scissors and falling stuffing, a promise of being the _only one who will stand by your side_.

In the end, though, it's just a name and a face; another grave he can't bring himself to visit.

**+X+X+**

**Courage**

The thought of dying for another has crossed their minds a thousand times, but the thought of another in tears prevents it from becoming more than that.

**+X+X+**

**Fool**

His mask is so convincing, he's managed to fool the person he donned it for.

**+X+X+**

**Show **

Gilbert always wonders why Vincent insists on inviting him to the theater--he always ends up falling asleep on his shoulder by the end of the first act.

**+X+X+**

**Tell**

He whispers to Oz Vessalius all that has happened to his beloved servant over the past ten years, and the look in the boy's eyes have to mirror his own when Xerxes Break told him about his brother's past with the same boy he's sitting with now.

**+X+X+**

**Shake**

Vincent's hands are steady when they hold the gun, a perfect imitation of his brother in those days long past.

**+X+X+**

**Move**

When Oz Vessalius begins to move, Vincent will already be three steps ahead of him, because this time, no one is going to take his brother away from him.

**+X+X+**

**Add**

If he could have had his way, no one would have had to die-- if they just let him be with his brother forever, nothing would have happened. But the fates were against Vincent, so the list of tragedies just keeps growing and growing.

**+X+X+**

**Pedestal**

They stood on the same ground, facing different ways, but with their hands behind their backs, gripping tightly that bond that held them together-- no one would know and no one could understand, not even them.

But this much they knew: if one fell, the other would follow.

**+X+X+**

**Semantics**

It was the way that Vincent said he loved him that sent shivers up Gilbert's spine-- he'd gotten used to the words long ago, when he'd heard them echoing in his own mind whenever a certain scissors-toting blonde showed up.

**+X+X+**

**Masochistic**

To love the pain was simply to submit to it, and Gilbert would submit to no one other than his Master.

(_and Vincent, and Break, and maybe both at the same time, on occasion or if they could stand each other for that long..._)

**+X+X+**

**Care**

"Oz may be my master... but I care for you as well."

**+X+X+**

**Secret**

If Gil didn't want anyone to know about them, then so be it.

_"I'm fine... with just being able to hold you."_

**+X+X+**

**Companion**

"No matter when or where... I will always be the one by your side."

[Long gone were the fears of holding too tight, of watching him fade-- this time around, nothing could pull them apart]

**+X+X+**

**Inspiration**

Each move, each kill, each pawn taken down and captured-- all these were for the sake of that person, that one person alone.

_'Vincent...'_

He'd get him back.

**+X+X+**

**Sadness**

It was the sound of Vincent's scissors, continuously cutting the air before him without pausing, that made Gilbert walk towards him and wrap his arms around him. After all, he knew that sound all too well.

**+X+X+**

**Clue**

They were in plain sight, glittering for all the world to see-- a pair of ruby drops and a gold cuff, inconspicuous but loaded with meaning, Gilbert's only concession and Vincent's guiltless pleasure.

**+X+X+**

**Message**

The gun pressed against his head and an arm across his throat: _Don't, please don't, stop it, please, why are you doing this?_

(A hand over his, and a whisper of his name: _I don't want to have it happen again_)

**+X+X+**

**Chat**

Seated on one side of a table with a twisted mad hatter, a sadist with a hero-complex and his psychotic, incestuous younger brother, Gilbert had never felt a stronger urge to run and never come back.

"Gilbert," Break began, "would you like some tea?"

It was going to be the longest half-hour of tea any of them would ever have to sit in.

**+X+X+**

**Sweet**

Because of a certain clown and his mistress, Gilbert had grown to fear any cup of tea, except, to everyone's surprise, Vincent's.

**+X+X+**

**Kind**

Vincent has often wondered why it was that when he tried to be kind to his brother, he only saw him as being cruel.

**+X+X+**

**Light**

Casting its hand upon their memories, the nightmares became the truth, and the dreams remained as they were.

**+X+X+**

**Cappuccino**

He found him in the cafe he'd dragged him into long ago, sipping peacefully at the same cappuccino he'd ordered for him before, and it wasn't before long that Gilbert found himself sitting with his brother, talking about mundane things and actually enjoying himself.

Eliot and Reo come to fetch them hours later, and under Eliot's fuming rant Vincent shoots his brother an uncharacteristically sheepish look, for which Gilbert gives him a gentle smile.

**+X+X+**

**Notes**

Since Gilbert didn't (_want to_) remember anything from their past, Vincent had taken to observing his brother and taking down mental notes about his behavior, to see if he was any different from the older brother he'd known before.

At the end of the day he looked them over, and on most nights he went to sleep with a sad smile on his face, because everything Gilbert did for Oz reminded him of what Gil used to do for him.

**+X+X+**

**Caught**

_Vincent remembers when they were in Jack's rose garden, playing hide and seek._

"Echo, are you sure he went this way?"

_Gil would count to ten while he dashed through the bushes, both of them trying to stifle their giggles until the final number._

"Quick, over here! I think I see-- _Yamane!_"

_He'd hide as best as he could, fold himself so he'd fit under the bushes; hold his breath so that he could mime their stillness, and when the rose bushes were parted..._

Through his dimming vision, Vincent could see his brother leaning over him.

_"Found you!"_

"Game's over... Gil..."

**+X+X+**

**Take**

Oz may have had Gilbert's life, but in the end, Vincent would be the one to take it.

**+X+X+**

**Rose**

They never tell him anything, specially the things he wants to know. Like, who owned the books in the study with their cute little doodles and thoughtful questions, or why the stuffed toys sitting on the couch ripped easily, or what used to be in the velvet box under the bed.

Eliot insists he's the only brother he ever had, even though Kevin gets an odd gleam in his eyes when he mentions it. Oz changes the subject when he tries to bring it up, and when Zwei opens her mouth with an intention to tell him, Lottie slaps her and he has to run.

They never tell him anything, so when the window opens in the middle of the night, and a strange mouse-like creature hops in, holding a white rose in one paw and an envelope in the other, he doesn't tell them that he's going with it.

**+X+X+**

**Dream **

Vincent hardly ever dreams, and neither does Gilbert, but when they do, they search for each other, as if by instinct, and hold each other's hands until dawn.

**+X+X+**

**Promise**

He opens his eyes, and a confused frown is on his lips even before the image clears and shows him his older brother's relieved and tear-streaked face. Gilbert is holding his hand tightly in both of his, and his voice is quiet when he says,

"Idiot... how can you be by my side if you're dead?"

**+X+X+**

**Forever**

All he ever wanted was to be by his brother's side forever, but this--

_"I told you to stay in bed! Your wounds haven't healed yet, Vince..."_

_"I'm letting you keep them... they're precious to you, right?"_

_"For all those years ago... I'm sorry..."_

--might not be that bad of a trade.

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_fin_

**+X+X+**

**Author's Notes: **If you enjoyed this little spiel, do R&R~ I feel as if Vincent's a bit OOC here... but Gil's a given case. :D Oh, credit goes to a friend of mine, Enha, who gave me the prompts via the Devil's 30-30 Challenge. Notes on the words can be found on my lj site.

**Randomnity: **Does anyone want to see that Tea Party of Doom??? 8D

**Randomnity.2: **Does my naming sense suck? ;______;


End file.
